Archimedes devoted much of his life to the study of geometry. He was fascinated with shapes. Many of the shapes he studied can be found in nature.

Archimedes' Spiral
Archimedes mathematically described the constant windings in a simple spiral. This shape can be found on the bottom of a pinecone.

Sphere
Archimedes studied spheres. He showed that the volume of a sphere is two-thirds that of a cylinder that encloses it. Spheres can be found on a grand scale in the shape of planets.

Circle
Archimedes is probably best known for finding a good approximation for pi. Pi is the ratio of a circle's circumference to its diameter. Circles appear in many places in nature, such as the ripples around a drop of water.